News

On September 21st, Kargyak Sun School will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its opening. There, in one of the last places on Earth, the original Tibetan culture survives at the elevation of 4200 m. Before the school opened, the village of 200 heads had only 10 members who could read and write a little. To get an education, children were sent away to boarding schools in faraway towns. Today, the Sun School has its alumni and thanks to the project, people stopped moving away from the village. >>
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Welcome to the Surya Civic Association web site

Kargyak is an isolated village situated in the Indian Himalayas in the altitude of 4200 m above sea level and it is one of the last places where
the original Tibetan culture still survives. Until recently, there was no school in the village and the children had no other chance but
either to leave for distant boarding schools or never to learn to read and write.
In September 2009 the Surya Civic Association finished construction of the specially designed “passive” school-building heated by sun,
fully ecological and also compatible with local structures also in terms of appearance.

News from Kargyak

We are back in Leh and drinking coffee. A Month and a bit later we are exactly where we started. This was not our plan. We were supposed to be in Manali bating in hot springs already a week ago. But…
Let´s start from the beginning. The start was tough. Days passed so slowly. We established our daily routine: teeth, morning exercise, breakfast, dish washing. Lesson preparation on our philosophical stone, which is situated between children´s toilet and Dawa´s (teacher who we stayed with) little vegetable garden. We didn´t come up with anything worth mentioning here. Following lunch, dishes, school, short walk, helping villagers with harvest, dinner, sleep. Every day the same. After first few days that felt like month, the month passed like few days.

On September 21st, Kargyak Sun School will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its opening. There, in one of the last places on Earth, the original Tibetan culture survives at the elevation of 4200 m. Before the school opened, the village of 200 heads had only 10 members who could read and write a little. To get an education, children were sent away to boarding schools in faraway towns. Today, the Sun School has its alumni and thanks to the project, people stopped moving away from the village.

Writing about Kurghiak and the Sun school project and several months after having returned to one's normal life turns out to be harder that expected. Not just because the memories gradually expire. Not even because there's little time to sit down and write as one gets sucked back into the (post-)modern way of life. The real challenge is to turn the Himalayan experience into written word: it would seem a few mountains have quite some power and as soon as you cross one of the passes (in our case it was Penzi-la), the climate, language, culture, religion and (almost) everything else changes. Zanskar is simply different.